Today, many companies are facing the competitive pressures of providing and gathering information via the Internet. The number of marketing oriented WEB sites has been increasing at a rapid pace. Having a company "home page" or "marketing-oriented" web site is accepted as a normal process.

Now the business of doing business via the Internet has moved to the forefront. Quite often this will require access to data and the coordination with processes of existing systems and business applications. This will require a cooperative effort of Internet and Mainframe resources

Companies want to include the mainframe as a major player functioning in its traditional role and taking on the new role of a very powerful server and large data base manager in an Internet environment. In today's world it is not a lack of technology and support but a question of what process, technology and support is required to meet a company's unique business requirements.

Companies are now seeking answers to the following questions.

1.

How is the gap between the Internet world and the mainframe world minimized or eliminated?

2.

Is it necessary to start from scratch or is it possible to modify and build on existing mainframe processes and technologies?

3.

Are tools available to accelerate the process of building new information presentation components such as converting mainframe screens (BMS or MFS) to HTML forms?

4.

May the clients attach directly to the mainframe or will an intermediate application server be required?

5.

Will the mainframe application require modification or is it practical to have the application server do the conversions required to connect a client directly to a mainframe terminal based program?

From a business perspective "Extending Legacy Applications to the Internet" should be synonymous with "Using Internet technologies for the profitable exchange of business information." This article attempts to provide some answers and insight into the various issues and approaches of extending legacy systems to the Internet.